


Pathogen

by under_hongseoks_toe



Series: Beginning of the End [1]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombies, Blood and Violence, But don't worry it makes sense if you haven't seen the movies, Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Memory Loss, Resident Evil AU, Slow Burn, Slow To Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:08:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28066770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/under_hongseoks_toe/pseuds/under_hongseoks_toe
Summary: Kim Hongjoong can’t remember anything - his name, his family, his occupation - all distant memories, long forgotten. When a group of strangers kidnap him to enlist his help, the young man can do nothing but hope he remembers enough not to get himself killed. Balancing the gigantic hole in his memories and an impending sense of doom, Hongjoong must work together with these strangers lest they all suffer the same terrible fate.
Relationships: Choi Jongho/Kang Yeosang, Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi, Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Series: Beginning of the End [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2055981
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	Pathogen

“Rise and shine sleeping beauty,” a saccharine voice calls out. The noise sounds miles away to the young man laying on the cold linoleum, so much so that it echoes in the corners of his mind, sending him tumbling back into nothingness. 

“Get up,” a second voice demands, sounding much closer. The words themselves are not quite enough to stir him to consciousness, but the coldness is beginning to force him awake. Everything is like ice. The floor. The stranger’s tone. The gun against his temple… the gun against his temple?!

He jolts up suddenly, a faint click ringing in his right ear. His vision is blurry, but despite not being able to see, he skitters backwards on his hands away from the threat. In the chaos, he bumps into a set of legs. As soon as his vision clears, he follows his field of view up, and through a mop of blue hair, he comes eye to eye with a smug dark haired man. Somehow his aggressive stare is eons more threatening than the gun that was just pressed to his head. He breaks eye contact. 

“Fucking hell Hwa, you could’ve killed him,” exclaims the same voice from earlier, now void of mocking sweetness, instead replaced with urgency. 

“The chamber was empty,” ‘Hwa’ deadpans. At his nonchalant remark, the man on the floor finally looks over to his attackers. Before him stands a group of three men -excluding the creep behind him- all clad in the same black garb. They look almost military, bullet proof vests and all, the only thing indicating that they aren't is the giant wave logo printed on their jackets. The blue haired man feels as though he’s seen that logo before, but his mind draws up blank. In fact, his mind draws up blank on just about everything.

“W-who are you?” he stutters. 

“You don’t recognize the logo?” the stocky man with maroon hair raises an eyebrow. He’s standing defensively between the man on the floor and the others, yet he doesn’t appear any more welcoming. 

“No, I don’t. Where am I?” the blue haired man rebuttals, pushing himself off the ground. His arms give out and he falls back on his ass.

A scoff resounds from one of the others. He’s holstering a gun in his waistband so the man on the floor concludes it must be ‘Hwa’. “Kim Hongjoong,” he starts. “You can pretend all you want that you don’t know what’s going on, but that changes nothing.” 

Kim Hongjoong? Is that his name? Why doesn’t he remember his name? 

“My name is H-Hongjoong?” he stutters, trying to get up again. This time, his legs don’t betray him and he manages to stand. When he looks down he notices he’s not wearing shoes. 

“Hwa, I think he hit his head going down,” the maroon man intervenes. “That or he’s a damn good actor.” 

‘Hwa’ steps closer and Hongjoong nearly backs up in response but he remembers there’s still a creep behind him so he stands his ground. The ashy brunette stops mere inches away from Hongjoong and looks him dead in the eye. Unlike the smug psycho from before his gaze doesn’t cause Hongjoong to recoil. Instead it lights a spark of defiance in the shorter of the two.

“Tell me what the fuck is going on,” Hongjoong demands. ‘Hwa’ blinks absently a few times. After an uncomfortable amount of staring, Hongjoong’s defiance only starts growing and he’s ready to snap again when ‘Hwa’ finally breaks the silence. 

“Fine,” he chuckles, “I’ll run with your little narrative.” 

Hongjoong opens his mouth to protest, but ‘Hwa’ beats him to it. “Jongho, give him the speech. Yeosang and I will scope the house to make sure nobody else is here. ” 

At his order, a man with a blond mullet, who hadn’t said an entire word this whole time, strides up to ‘Hwa’s’ side. He doesn’t even respond, he merely falls into step with ‘Hwa’ as they walk off to search the house for any threats.  _ As if they aren’t the biggest threat here _ , Hongjoong thinks. 

“So,” the marron haired man, now dubbed Jongho, begins. “Do you really not remember your name?” 

“I don’t remember anything,” Hongjoong chokes, wracking his brain for even the tiniest sliver of recollection. He comes up empty handed. The earliest memory he has is of the man in front of him telling him to “rise and shine”. 

“Fine, if Hwa says to roll with it, I guess we roll with it,” he sighs. 

Hongjoong gets a sudden burst of courage ignited by the flames of disdain. “I take it ‘Hwa’ must be your leader then,” he spits out the other’s name like it’s acid. 

“Why’d you say it like that,” Jongho pouts. It’s surreal seeing a grown man with guns strapped to his body, pouting like a small child. Hongjoong rolls his eyes.

“Oh I don’t know,” he quips. “Maybe because your fearless leader shot me!”

“The chamber was empty!” Jongho whines, flailing his arms like a toddler throwing a tantrum. The more time Hongjoong spends with this guy, the less intimidated he is. He still has a gun though, and that’s more than Hongjoong has, so he decides to tread carefully. 

“He intended to kill me,” he replies, resummoning his courage. The etchings of a plan start to develop in Hongjoong’s brain so he pushes on. “That’s not very leaderly.”

“No way! He knew it was empty. Seonghwa would never just shoot someone without cause,” Jongho defends, throwing up his hands in protest. Right according to plan...

“Are you sure about that?”

“He’s a good man,” he responds, bringing up his hands to run them through his hair in frustration. Hongjoong eyes the guns at his waist, completely unguarded. If he just lunged forward- 

“Ahem.” someone clears their throat and Hongjoong tears his eyes away from Jongho’s guns and directs them towards the source of the sound. The unnerving dark haired man from before scowls at them and Hongjoong once again feels chills run up his spine at his stare - and not in the fun way.

“Sorry, Jaesuk,” Jongho mutters an apology. Hm, sounds kind of familiar, too bad Hongjoong can’t remember a damn thing from before waking up. 

“Just tell him what’s going on,” Jaesuk orders. Surprisingly, Jongho complies without even blinking. Although Seonghwa is the leader of this little team, it appears that Jaesuk holds some semblance of authority over Jongho. Before the stocky man can begin his explanation, Hongjoong hears a gun cock and he feels a familiar cold pressure against the back of his neck. 

“Just a precautionary measure, Joong-ie,” Jaesuk whispers, far too close for comfort. Hongjoong wants to vomit. “Get explaining Jongho,” he grunts back at full volume, without moving away. His breath displaces a few of Hongjoong’s hairs.

Jongho winces but continues nonetheless, “When Hwa and Yeosang-ie get back we’re taking you to the Hive.” 

“The what?” Hongjoong scrunches his face, trying to ignore the bone chilling presence behind him. 

“Oh come on, you don’t even remember where you work…?” the taller sighs. There he goes again, talking with his hands. How predictable. 

Hongjoong shakes his head and the gun moves with him. He swallows and responds verbally instead.

“I told you, I don’t know anything.”

“Fine,” he leans against the wall and crosses his legs in front of himself. “Your name is Kim Hongjoong and you’re head of security at an underground facility called The Hive, home to some of the Umbrella Corp’s finest research. Security is tight down there, controlled almost strictly by biometric systems, but that all makes sense given the priceless research. Don’t worry though, we're only after one thing, and you, my friend, are gonna help us steal it.”

Hongjoong gulps. These men want to use him to steal from a mega powerful cooperation, or so he assumes it’s an influential company given Jongho’s description. He may not have his memories but he still gets the feeling that Umbrella Corp. - whoever the fuck they are - should not be messed with. They’re in over their heads, Hongjoong just knows it, and he’s ready to tell them that-

“You don’t get a say in the matter, sweetheart,” Jaesuk pushes the gun harder against the base of his skull. Hongjoong squeezes his eyes shut at the impact.

“What’s going on here,” Seonghwa and Yeosang must’ve returned. Something heavy hits the ground at Hongjoong’s feet. He pries his eyes open and sees a pair of boots on the floor. Seonghwa is glaring at Jaesuk and Yeosang is silent and blank faced as per usual. 

“Just making sure he didn’t try anything,” Jaesuk responds, turning the safety back on and putting the handgun away. Seonghwa doesn’t reply to that, instead he looks over to Jongho.

“Are we good to move out?” he inquires. 

“Yup, I filled him in, we’re ready to go!” Jongho exclaims, as he prys himself away from the wall and dusts off the back of his legs.  _ This guy must be the newest addition to the team _ , Hongjoong thinks,  _ because he is weirdly  _ _enthusiastic_. 

Seonghwa just stares, and Hongjoong takes that as a hint to put the damn boots on so they can go. As much as Hongjoong doesn’t want to comply, there’s nothing he can do. He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. The four of them are armed, and Hongjoong has no idea where he is. He can’t take them all, and even if he did, he probably couldn’t get away, he’s got nowhere to go.

“You look like you’re about to die from thinking so hard,” Jongho jokes as he passes by, amicably patting the shorter man on the shoulder.

Dying? That’s precisely what Hongjoong is worried about.


End file.
